There are many specific situations where there is a pressing need to know of the presence of a chemical agent or a virus or the like. The presence of specific chemical agents must be monitored inside and outside of factories that use hazardous materials. There are also instances where diseases can spread through a herd of animals and early detection through monitoring can be used to contain a disease. Still another instance is the intentional introduction of a disease or harmful chemical into a large population. Yet another need is for military troops when involved in a conflict where an enemy is not beyond employing chemical warfare in a conflict.
Agriculture is the largest economic sector in the United States. Of that sector, the value of livestock and poultry is approximately $100 billion dollars. Protecting U.S. livestock from disease is a top priority, not only because of the economic losses to the producer when diseases occur, but also the economic losses incurred by all related industries, including the food industry. However, the intensification of the livestock industry has allowed the majority of the livestock to be raised on fewer and larger farms, resulting in increased vulnerability to widespread disease transmission. These disease outbreaks lead to a loss of livestock productivity through the death of the animal, reduced yield, or reduced reproductive ability. Some livestock diseases are also transmissible to humans. For these reasons, disease prevention or early detection is critical to minimize the production losses and the associated economic losses.
Vaccination and antibiotic treatment are in widespread use in the United States; however these practices cannot prevent all disease occurrences. When disease outbreaks occur, it is essential that the disease be diagnosed at the earliest possible detection time to prevent or minimize production losses.
Aside from natural disease transmission, agricultural bioterrorism is a large security concern for Homeland Defense. The intentional introduction of diseases such as Foot and Mouth disease could spread rapidly on-farm and from farm to farm via aerosol transmission. Affected areas would be forced to destroy all animals, which would have an enormous economic impact on the producer and the economy of the surrounding area. Although an act of agricultural bioterrorism may not be an immediate threat to the general public, the fear and unease generated by such an attack could also have an impact on the national economy.
The emerging threat of exposure to toxicants in chemical weapons, and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) is also a major concern for large populations. While the threat of chemical weapons is self evident, that of TICs may be less obvious. However, since TICs are easier to obtain than traditional warfare agents, terrorists are most likely to release TICs in a chemical attack. TICs are also a concern for civilian populations near chemical plants and industries that use them in daily processes, such as paper mills, waste management facilities and plastic manufacturers.
There is currently a wide range of instruments available for measuring chemical agents and TICs. These instruments use many different technologies including solid-state chemical sensors, colorimetric chemical sensors, sensor arrays, and analytical techniques such as photo ionization detection and gas chromatography. These instruments range in price from $10 to many tens of thousands of dollars. The primary disadvantage of many of these instruments is that they are designed to measure the quantity of a specific chemical rather than a broad range of toxic chemicals. This means that many different instruments are needed to evaluate a potential emergency, which results in large equipment costs. The use of the current invention may allow a single general purpose analytical instrument, such as a mass spectrometer, to be used to test air samples for a broad range of chemical agents and TICs.